Summer is Here, Where Is Your Mind?

The summer is finally in full swing!

Ok, maybe the official day isn't until June 21 in the US, but it FEELS like summer! I've even started working on getting that nice golden brown tan I promise myself every year.

It seems like once memorial day rolls around everyone lights up and starts heading out as much as possible. The beaches here in Chicago become full all day and night and there is an unending stream of smoke from grills all around the city.

Along with all the tan lines and delicious grilled meat come the constant flow of ambulances and police cars near the major beaches.

Every year without fail there is an increase in crime and people that end up in the hospital from drinking all day in the sun.

Two Sides of Summer

As I drove down Lake Shore Drive yesterday and watched the ambulance lights pass me I thought of what it means to be a yogi.

More so, what does it mean to dedicate yourself to developing your highest potential in a world with limitless distractions?

And the truth is ... it's hard.

I should say working with our habits are hard. Hitting the meditation cushion or yoga mat is a mostly joyful activity. It's the other 23 hours of the day that seem to be the most challenging!

Every moment of every day you're faced with a million tiny decisions that we think will make us happy.

Coke or Sprite

Blonde or Brunette

Kombucha or Cognac

Then that briefest desire is either fulfilled or not and we jump to the next instant of a something that never lasts.

Its in this stream of decisions that we can so easily lose our awareness -- instead of holding that state of mind we experienced in meditation we take that 12th shot and punch a lifeguard!

Lack of awareness meet consequences.

Where Is Your Mind

The summer often feels like the breeding ground for forgetting all the work we put into developing clarity of mind. That as the sun beats on our tanned skin we forget that its so much more joyful to enjoy a stable mind instead of making another less than useful decision.

As we pull out the volley ball net and those stupid sandals with a bottle opener on the bottom -- remember that hour on the cushion or the mat is only the starting point. That place of openness and awareness that we try to carry into every moment of every day until that experience becomes effortless.

Then we're truly unshakable